A group of small tea growers in the Nilgiris have joined hands to establish a model Speciality Tea Factory on the Ooty-Coonoor main road.
“'This factory would be commissioned by January 2014,” H.N. Sivan, President, Nilgiris Nelikolu Micro & Small Tea Growers and Farmers Development Society (NSTF Society), told Business Line.
While stating that this model factory would be owned by the NSTF Society, Mr Sivan said that the Society was striving to promote 50 Micro and 10 Mini Speciality Tea Factories in the District in two years.
“The investment on this model factory, which is coming up on eight cents of land is around Rs one crore. We will be able to produce 500 kg of made tea everyday using 2,000 kg of green leaf,” he explained.
The Society is planning to brand it as “Ooty Fresh” teas.
According to Sivan, the Society has commenced the exercise of educating its members about this proposed initiative, towards setting up their own micro and green speciality tea factories in various cluster zones of Nilgiris.
“Small farmers with holding of 1-10 acres of tea garden can form groups and establish micro/mini tea processing units. Thanks to the Tea Board’s new norms for regulating Micro and Mini Speciality Tea Factories, small growers will now be able to produce teas from the leaves plucked from their own garden.”
“The 40 per cent subsidy which the Board is offering for each project of the small grower would provide the much-needed support. Small growers need no longer be at the mercy of the Bought Leaf Factories”, he added.
“The growers have hitherto been supplying the green leaf to the Bought Leaf factories, without prior knowledge of the price that their supplies would fetch. If they take up tea processing themselves they will be able to fix their own price for the teas and earn better,” he said.
To a query on investment, he said “the cost of establishing a mini processing unit would be around Rs 12 lakh. The Board is offering 40 per cent subsidy for machinery. Each such unit can produce up to 35 kg of made tea everyday”.